Colin Powell's former chief of staff called on Friday for a special prosecutor to be appointed and "armed to the teeth" to investigate the authorization of torture by Bush administration officials. He also stated that the lawyers involved in drafting the "torture memos" should be disbarred, but he held out little hope that the political will exists for either course of action to take place.

The explosive probe of New York state's pension fund is going international -- with investigators looking into whether payments by an Israeli company were kicked back to a firm tied to indicted political guru Hank Morris, The Post has learned.

The indictment charged that DAV-Wetherly was a source of laundered payments to Morris for steering it pension-fund business, the source said. Morris was Hevesi's longtime friend and top political adviser.

Milwaukee's police chief said Tuesday he'll go on telling his officers to take down anyone with a firearm despite Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's finding that people can carry guns openly if they do it peacefully.

Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn said he'll continue to tell officers they can't assume people are carrying guns legally in a city that has seen nearly 200 homicides in the past two years.

The American Civil Liberties Union says the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey under Christopher Christie, now a GOP gubernatorial candidate, tracked the whereabouts of citizens through their cell phones without warrants.

Veterans groups and conservatives roared last week when news broke that the FBI was targeting veterans in a broad probe of extremist groups. But little noise was made in December, when the Bush administration quietly granted the FBI wide-ranging authority to investigate individuals or groups, regardless of whether they are suspected of criminal activity.

A federal appeals court ruled Monday that private citizens can challenge state and local gun laws by invoking the constitutional right to bear arms - the first such ruling in the nation - but upheld a ban on firearms at gun shows at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton.

President Barack Obama said Tuesday the United States lost "our moral bearings" with gruesome terror-suspect interrogations and left the door open to prosecuting Bush administration officials who vouched for their legality.

At the same time, Obama said the question of whether to bring charges "is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general within the parameters of various laws and I don't want to prejudge that." The president discussed the continuing issue of terrorism-era interrogation tactics with reporters as he finished an Oval Office meeting with visiting King Abdullah of Jordan.More...